The star delivers a masterclass in reptilian charm as the unscrupulous head of a provincial firm, but Fernando León de Aranoa’s tragicomedy can feel heavy-handedAn impressively slick and slimy performance from Javier Bardem is the standout selling point for this serviceable if (perhaps appropriately?) workaday satire on corporate corruption and alienated capitalism.
Reuniting with writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa, with whom he made 2002’s highly acclaimed Mondays in the Sun and the 2017 biographical crime drama Loving Pablo, Bardem dominates the screen in a role that exploits his ability to combine smarmy charm with reptilian repugnance.
He may be all smiles, but Bardem’s antihero hides petty menace behind his executive specs, topped off with a bland paternalist hairdo that weirdly evokes the pudding-bowled killer from No Country for Old Men in what would presumably be his “silver fox” period.Described by its director as both “a tragicomic tale
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